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50 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Ahh...two tracks in a gym, January 15, 2002
As a ex-rock musician who has found his career in music education, it would be an understatement to say that I can relate to this disc. When walking into a performance with students, a good music teacher hopes for perfection but expects disaster. Somewhere in between these two extremes there lies what we call in the trade a "musical experience". All music teachers have a story about their musical experiences, the times when we felt something that we've have never felt before, nor since, and that cannot exist without music as a part of our lives. This feeling drives us, and help us to keep music alive in young minds. We hope to impart one or two musical experiences in the average student's career, and these keep us going in a when our job is stressful or even sometimes thankless.Hans Ferger was not only gave his students the opportunity to have as least (count 'em) nineteen musical experiences, he was smart enough to capture them on two-track. The story of Hans Ferger, the music director of the Langley Schools, reads like the familiar story of a real-life Mr. Holland. Playing gigs by night and teaching guitar by day can pay the bills if you're thrifty, but when a child comes the story changes. When presented with this situation, Ferger got teaching certification and began teaching elementary music. However, it was in the format of the classroom that he finally found his "band". Instead of a bass player, or a drummer, his format consisted of sixty-plus kids, various drums, cymbals, Orff instruments, and "modern" electric instruments. He played guitar and piano. The result of this collaboration yielded some of the most energetic, honest, and musical performances that I can think of. "Innocence and Despair", in its own way, totally ROCKS, but you have to be able to recognize how children express themselves. The Bay City Rollers' "Saturday Night" is an obvious example. Even the most lost kid comes in with the "S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y - NIGHT" part of the song, so much so that the bulk of the ensemble misses the entrance of the first verse. Most of them would seem to be more than happy to just jeep singing the chorus over and over and clapping quarter notes all day long. Remember, we aren't talking about the Vienna Boys Choir, here. "Innocence and Despair" is, above all else, a performance of sixty-plus public elementary school students singing hits from the sixties and seventies. The ensemble performances are of questionable intonation, timbre, and security. Most of them might bug you because of thier very nature, but think about it: an age-appropriate obstacle for some kids at this age is just to follow the melodic line. To get kids to follow a melody up and down is the goal of any elementary school music teacher, and this is something that Ferger's students are able to do almost flawlessly. They are even able to sing in harmony pretty well ("In My Room"). However, after an hour or so the average listener might not be able to keep tuned in, and this is quite understandable. Most elementary concerts don't last for more than thirty minutes or so for just this reason.
To get an idea of whether or not "Innocence and Despair" is for you, I suggest listening to "Band on the Run". The genius of Hans Ferger's arrangements meets the energy of the students head-on on this track. The song form of the original "Band on the Run" is not standard by any means, and it has some guitar playing that is integral to the song. Ferger's arrangement stays totally true to the original song form, but is able to distill the guitar licks into totally digestible and age-appropriate four-note Orff patterns. Ingenious. In addition to this, the kids really seem to LOVE the melody of the song. When they sing the line "I hope you're having fun", well, they seem to be - just listen to it. As good as the ensemble performances are, there are also a couple of standout gems on this recording, and those are the solo performances. The subject material of both "The Long and Winding Road" (as performed by Joy Jackson) and "Desperado" (as performed by Shiela Behman) would most assuredly elude the average elementary student, but I cannot imagine a more convincing and heart-rending rendition of either of these songs. Both of them are eerie, and almost unlistenable in terms of their honesty and empathy. Musicians, take note: perfection is not so important. Its not important that you hit every note every night. Its the love of what you do that drives you. How can you like both Nirvana and Frank Zappa at the same time? You simply have to recognize that both belived in what they were doing, and they were realizing thier vision to the best of thier ability. These kids LOVED the songs they were singing, and on the whole I think they believed in what thier teacher was saying. Because of this, "Innocence and Despair" is an indespensibly human recording. People hold music they choose to listen to very close to their heart. Musicians in particular are shaped by the music that they love, and the music they listen to quite literally becomes part of them and their life's experience. Ferger was able to pass on to these children was the love that he obviously had for these songs. All music educators hope to inspire their students the way that they themselves were once inspired. Inarguably, Ferger achieved this aim, and was able to share an intimate part of himself with his students. More enviable, he found ways to express himself through an unimaginable medium. His arrangements and orchestrations were both meaningful and relevant to him and well as his students, and that is where he and his students shared something thatthe average educator will never understand.
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Interact With Your Music: Discover, listen to, and buy new music, all from the pages of SPIN's digital edition, free to Amazon customers.
by The Langley Schools Music Project 
